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Commission head backs sports scientists

Jared Lynch

The chair of the Australian Sport Commission has backed the role of sports scientists despite the AFL Players Association declaring war on the maverick profession.

The role of sports scientists has been dragged to the centre of an explosive report linking organised crime with doping in sport.

Fairfax Media confirmed on Friday that Essendon footballers were injected in their stomachs by sacked sports official Stephen Dank at the club last season as well as being intravenously fed supplements at a botox clinic near Windy Hill. This triggered the ire of AFL Players Association boss Matt Finnis, who said he would push for legislation forcing clubs to remove the power of high performance experts in the belief that Essendon was at least one club which had failed to show responsible governance towards its handling of its players.

But John Wylie, the chair of the Australian Sports Commission said it was too early to jump to conclusions. Wylie said the Australian Institute of Sport was testament that there was integrity in the sports science profession and that it had a role for the development of sport.

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He said the AIS employed many tertiary qualified sports scientists across the country. "It's too early for conjecture about what may or may not have happened," said Wylie when asked if the field of sports science had been tainted by the work of a few.

He believed that the increasing commerciality and higher expectations of elite sport did not mean it could not be clean or operate on the edge of the law.

Wylie referred to the sports commission's Winning Edge 2012-2022 game plan announced last year, which he said detailed greater levels of accountability through stronger governance structures within national sporting organisations and working alongside organisations like the Australian Crime Commission and Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

"Our hunger for success cannot come at any cost and that the integrity of sport and our athletes is paramount. "The vast majority of sports people are positive role models and our youth must have the ability to have confidence in their heroes."

The Australian Crime Commission's report revealed doping had not only infected top level sport but had seeped through to grassroots level. This threatened the integrity of Australian professional sport because many top athletes were selected from the sub elite ranks, the report said.

Wylie said the use of performance enhancing drugs at amateur level, where it can relatively unchecked, was a concern. But he vowed the sports commission would do whatever it could to stamp out the practice.

"But we got to take it one step at a time," Wylie said, highlighting that the crime commission's report deals with professional sport.